Running multiple instances of Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner (WVS) allows you to scan multiple websites simultaneously. Each instance can scan one website at a time – you can have up to two instances of all Acunetix WVS editions or up to ten instances if you are using the Enterprise or Consultant editions.

To run multiple web security scans simultaneously, you need to use either the Acunetix WVS Graphical User Interface (GUI) and/or the Acunetix Scheduler Web Interface. For example, you can have six multiple instances of the Acunetix WVS GUI running and another four instances scanning websites from the Scheduler.

Scanning Multiple Websites using the Acunetix WVS GUI

To scan multiple websites using the Acunetix WVS GUI, simply launch the GUI several times from the Program Group in Windows. For instance, if you need to scan four websites at the same time, then four instances of the Acunetix WVS GUI should be opened and a web security scan from each instance should be launched. Each scan is independent of the other, therefore you can use different scanning profiles and pre-defined Scan Settings Templates.

Example of Acunetix WVS Instances

Scanning Multiple Websites using the Acunetix Scheduler

Just like with the Acunetix GUI, the Acunetix Scheduler makes it possible to specify a different Scanning Profile and Scan Settings Template for each scan by configuring the scans one by one. If you specify a list of URLs in the same schedule, the same Scanning Profile and Scan Settings Templates will be used for every scan.

If you schedule more than 10 scans, Acunetix WVS will automatically use all the available instances to complete the scans as efficiently as possible. Once a scan is finished and an instance becomes available, the scheduler will automatically use that free instance to scan the next URL.

Example of Scheduling a New Scan with Acunetix WVS

Using the Acunetix Scheduler to scan multiple websites is the preferred option since the Scheduler guarantees a complete and successful scan against the predefined list of URLs without the need for any manual intervention.

View all the Acunetix FAQs here.

